HYLA Blog

I remember the last time I went in to buy a new mobile phone at a carrier store—the store was small, located in an outdoor mall.

Inside, there were three sales reps helping different customers and a few groups of people ahead of me, in line. It took about 20 minutes, for which I browsed in the crowded store, until someone was able to help me. Prior to this experience, I had been to a the same store in a different location earlier that week but left after being told the wait to speak to a representative would be more than 30 minutes. I couldn’t wait.

This time I could, but it took me more than one and a half hours to buy my new phone and trade-in my old one.

Reducing Wait Times, Improves Customer Satisfaction

So, how can a carrier store increase customser satisfaction and loyalty? As a consumer, I don’t want to spend that much time buying a phone. I could buy one online in the comfort of my own home or on my phone when I’m on the go.

The problem is, what do I do with my old phone? Most consumers throw their old phones in a drawer, where they sit losing value until they aren’t worth anything.

The typical phone loses about 1% of its original sale price a week. Knowing that there is more than $100 on a typical phone being traded, I wanted to have an accurate and fair value credited to the purchase price of my new phone or that new Bluetooth headset. I had to do the mobile trade-in transactions in the store.

From a carrier perspective, the greatest value of your stores is a place where you can build strong relationships with as many customers as possible. One way to do this is giving people like me, the option to complete a phone trade-in online.

The time I would have spent with a sales rep would be freed up for other customers that are not as comfortable doing things online. The other way to impact this is by increasing the number of customers a sales rep can interact with, by increasing store efficiency.

Automating Mobile Trade-in Transactions

One way to improve efficiency in the mobile trade-in transaction, is to make it possible for customers to begin the trade process at home, before they even enter the store.

For example, if the customer knew how much their phone was worth based on its condition, ahead of time, the sales rep could spend more time on educating the customer on new products and services rather than figuring out the value of the device.

By automating the mobile device trade-in process in store, the sales rep could give the customer (vs. the device) more attention.

Automation also has an added benefit of increasing the accuracy in assessing a phone’s value and therefore reducing adjustments. An adjustment is the difference between the price the carrier pays for the phone and the its real value.

From our experience at HYLA, having processed more than 36 million phones, more than 25% of the phones received via trade-in programs have adjustments. Of those, over 50% can be traced back to sales reps incorrectly identifying a phone.

Better Mobile Trade-in, Better Service

What’s the solution?

HYLA now offers, mobile trade-in technology that will handle the trade-in process and improve the carrier’s business, empowering and engaging consumers more fully. This solution will help you–the carrier—streamline a customer’s trade-in process and focus on what you do best.

The solution automatically identifies and assesses a phone accurately and quickly. After initiating a trade-in, HYLA’s mobile app technology, working with HYLA’s cloud, automatically diagnoses, grades and prices the phone.

The functionality is incorporated seamlessly into your existing mobile apps. As customers interact with your native apps, they will benefit from the added functionality embedded, easily allowing them to begin a trade-in while searching for new phones or otherwise checking on their account.

This puts more account control in your customers’ hands keeping them engaged, confident and satisfied with the added convenience of a buy-back transaction.

The solution empowers users to complete trade-ins without ever stepping foot inside a store. It also increases the number of actions customer can do away from the store prior to coming in, if needed. This leads to quicker lead times, lower adjustments, more accurate trade-ins and happy customers.

As mobile device trade-ins and buy backs become more common, the process will need to be easy, convenient and valuable. With HYLA’s solution, carriers can deliver a more streamlined and complete trade-in process with better service.

What's the Value of Mobile in the Trade-in Process?

This blog is part of a series examining the value of the mobile channel in the trade-in process for the carrier, retailer, insurance and OEM markets, this blog reviews the experience of the carrier.

Each blog details the benefits the mobile trade-in market can realize with HYLA Mobile’s trade-in expertise on a mobile platform, and the impact that HYLA’s solution has on the mobile channel for retailers. From big box stores to other phone retailers, trading in a device is a complex, multifold process that can be simplified.

Download this white paper to learn how to create an efficient trade-in program that satisfies consumers and keeps them coming back every time they want to change devices.